Andy WarholUSA, 1928–1987Mao
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Var finns ”Mao” nu? Samling: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Visas inte just nu. Kontrollerat 9 november 2026.
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Nearly fifteen feet tall, Andy Warhol's Mao of 1972 is at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Its scale recalls the portraits displayed throughout China and addresses the personality cult around Mao Zedong. Warhol combined photographic reproduction with conspicuously artificial colour. Paint on the face resembles makeup, while loose gestures depart from the photograph's apparent realism. The work belongs to his Mao series, extending a silkscreen practice previously applied to film stars and mass-produced goods. Here painted marks remain visible over the reproduced political image.
Med museets egna ord
The most influential of Pop artists, Andy Warhol cast a cool, ironic light on the pervasiveness of commercial culture and contemporary celebrity worship. Early in his career, he began to utilize the silk-screen process to transfer photographed images to canvas, creating multiple portraits of celebrities including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Jacqueline Kennedy, as well as duplicated images of mass-produced products such as Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles. In this example from his Mao series, Warhol melded his signature style with the scale of totalitarian propaganda to address the cult of personality surrounding the Chinese ruler Mao Zedong (1893–1976). Nearly fifteen feet tall, this towering work mimics the representations of the political figure that were ubiquitously displayed throughout China.
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Warhol’s looming portrait impresses us with the duality of its realistic qualities and its plastic artificiality. In contrast to the photographic nature of the image, garish colors are applied to Mao’s face like makeup. The gestural handling of color in the portrait shows Warhol at his most painterly.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Uppgifter
- Inventarienummer
- 1974.230
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- Art Institute of Chicago
- Bild: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder
I Andy Warhols liv
Hela livet1970–1971
The retrospective from Pasadena to the Whitney
In 1970 the Pasadena Art Museum organised a Warhol retrospective that travelled on to Chicago, Eindhoven, Paris, London and, in 1971, the Whitney Museum in New York. At the Whitney the Cow wallpaper (1966) served as the backdrop for the paintings.
c. 1971 – 1974
More and more often in Paris
Warhol began travelling to Europe more often and grew especially fond of Paris after filming L'Amour (1972); he kept an apartment on the Left Bank, on Rue du Cherche-Midi, shared with Fred Hughes. In Paris his circle socialised with Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Loulou de la Falaise and Paloma Picasso.
1973
Diagnosis: a gallstone
In 1973 Warhol was diagnosed with a gallstone but adamantly refused surgery because he feared hospitals. His physician Denton Cox tried to obtain an experimental medication from Japan, while a chiropractor and a nutritionist suggested he wear a small crystal.
